Month: April 2013

The Warriors used to fight for lottery position. Now they’re fighting to close out a playoff series. In Game 5, that fight was raw and nasty. Kenneth Faried appeared to intentionally kick Stephen Curry’s ankle on a screen. Andrew Bogut — and no need for qualifying language here — used two hands to Faried’s chest to send him into the front row a quarter later. The scrapping spilled over verbally into the post-game press conferences, with Mark Jackson claiming to have “inside sources” telling him about “hit men” that the Nuggets have sent after Curry. George Karl closed his Q and A by musing, unprompted, “whether Draymond Green played football or basketball at Michigan State.” Andre Iguodala used his press time to blame the Warriors for starting the physical play and claimed to have taken the hardest shot of the series, courtesy of a Bogut pick that Iggy’s teammates failed to call out. Meanwhile, Curry — both ankles in an ice bucket and one eye still badly bloodshot — sat in front of his locker and talked in a measured tone about not backing down. The Warriors are receiving an education in playoff basketball. We’ll find out how much they’ve learned on Thursday night.

This time last Tuesday, things looked very different for the Warriors. David Lee’s injury left a hole in their starting line-up. Andre Miller’s heroics left Denver’s nearly-perfect home record intact. Mark Jackson was left with lots of questions. Over the last three games, he’s found the answers. But the challenge ahead of Jackson in Game 5 may be his toughest yet — log two victories in Denver in a week, against a team that previously hadn’t lost any at home for three months. This is a classic “play for pride” game for the Nuggets, but it is for the Warriors too.

The last time I saw a Warriors player with a towel over his head at the end of the bench during the playoffs, it was Monta Ellis during the We Believe Dallas series. Despite the Warriors’ heroics in that series, Ellis melted under the bright lights and ended up nothing more than a footnote to Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson’s bolt italics. On Sunday night, I looked down and saw Stephen Curry walk the entire length of the bench following a brief 1:16 run to start the second quarter. He found the last seat, put a towel over head, and slumped over. Some two hours later, Mark Jackson gave the moment some context. Jackson had told Curry when he pulled him that Jackson might shut him down for the night to protect Curry’s sore ankle. Curry didn’t argue; he turned inward. But like the plutonium core of a nuclear bomb, Curry didn’t collapse under the playoff pressure pushing down on him from all sides — he went critical. The resulting 22-point explosion in the third quarter tore the roof off Oracle Arena, leveled the Nuggets and may have just marked the dawning of a new era: Stephen Curry, NBA superstar.

Game 4 scares me. Despite the noise, the momentum and the fortuitous finish of Game 3, the Warriors should have their hands full on Sunday night. The Nuggets realize how difficult a 3-1 deficit will be to overcome. Denver hasn’t put together a complete game yet, but they have a few factors trending in their favor.

Playoff basketball isn’t always pretty. Some of the finest games are downright ugly. On Friday night at the Arena — the single best place to watch basketball in the world at the moment — the Warriors alternated between the horrific and heroic. Mark Jackson would make a move; George Karl would counter. The Warriors struggled offensively in the first half because of terrific Nuggets defense. The tables turned in the second half for exactly the same reason. We witnessed a game played at the margin, where the smallest adjustments, mistakes or successes have ripples that extend far beyond their split-second (or five second, in the case of Jarrett Jack) moment. And at the margin — the extra step by Festus Ezeli to shut off the baseline, the extra pass by Stephen Curry to get a teammate an open shot, the extra move by Carl Landry to get a clean look at the basket, or the extra stutter step by Jarrett Jack to find some lane to the rim — the Warriors kept on coming out ahead. All of those little things coalesced into a Warriors victory, and potentially the turning point of the series.

You don’t get a 38-3 home record by accident. The difficulty of winning in Denver was well documented before this series began. But — in what’s threatening to become a trend — the Warriors upended expectations regarding the Nuggets’ home court advantage. For Game 3, it’s the Nuggets’ turn to try to outrun expectations by proving that they can be just as potent on the road as in the friendly confines of their mile-high home. The Warriors, meanwhile, hope that the Nuggets live up to their reputation.

Red Auerbach once observed that “basketball is like a war, in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes awhile for the defense to catch up.” On Tuesday night in Denver, the Warriors unleashed just about every offensive weapon at their disposal (short of Andris Biedrins’ free throws). On Friday night in Oakland, the Nuggets’ defense will try to catch up. Mark Jackson got such good production out of the Curry/Jack/Thompson/Barnes/Bogut line-up, I have a hard time imagining him straying from it to start the game. George Karl, on the other hand, has already promised changes.

Mark Jackson is a positive man. From the early days of this season, Jackson has heaped praise on his team for their hard work, resiliency and us-against-the-world belief in themselves. He’s always called them tough, even when the evidence might have suggested otherwise. On Tuesday night in Denver, the Warriors didn’t just live up to their coach’s words, they made them seem like understatements. Written off by most as first-round road-kill following the injury to David Lee, the Warriors systematically dismantled the Nuggets on their home court — where they had won 24 in a row and lost only 3 games all season. They did it not only with historically hot shooting (64.6%), but with aggressive defense, gritty rebounding and unselfish ball movement. The Warriors always believed they could win this series. With Game 2’s triumphant 131-117 victory, they’re making believers out of the rest of the NBA.

Things change quickly in the playoffs. Before Game 1, we expected a track meet with two of the NBA’s fastest offenses. 72 hours later, the Warriors have lost one of their few dependable offensive weapons and are trying to build on a surprisingly robust defensive performance. Andrew Bogut was a difference-maker at the rim. Klay Thompson frustrated the Denver wings and rendered them largely ineffective. Of the deep Nuggets’ backcourt rotation, only Andre Miller got anything going (although his heroic performance was enough). If the Warriors can deliver a similar defensive effort, the underdog should once again be in a position to win.

There are only so many ways you can ask Mark Jackson who he will start Tuesday night at power forward. The media finally exhausted them at Tuesday morning’s shoot-around. Jackson’s position was unchanged — we’ll find out who is starting when the team sends out line-ups this evening. As with Monday’s media session, the Warriors projected a sense of looseness and confidence. Jackson and the Warriors feel like they did a lot of things right on Saturday, and can build on those successes even without David Lee. Time will tell whether the mood was prescient or delusional.